Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
Move over, Hollywood and NFL types, golf's two real A-listers take center stage Sunday at Pebble Beach, both in need of a win.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Luis Suarez's refusal to shake hands with Patrice Evra overshadowed Manchester United's 2-1 win over rival Liverpool that lifted the defending champions to first place in the Premier League on Saturday.
Marlies Schild of Austria won her sixth World Cup slalom of the season Saturday after overall leader Lindsey Vonn and defending champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch crashed out in the opening run on the windy Pyrenees course.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
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Baseball fans hit the road FirstPerson: Been on a baseball odyssey? Our readers share their favorite photos, and it's not too late to send yours! NBCSports.com |
Take me out to the ballgame ... because I can’t afford it.
The high price of going to a game is now the No. 1 problem in Major League Baseball, a new Associated Press-Knowledge Networks poll of fans shows.
Soaring salaries and steroids dominated fans’ worries in past AP surveys. But with opening day less than a week away, the nation’s recession is delivering the biggest blow.
“Like every election, it’s the economy,” said New York Yankees star Mark Teixeira, who signed a $180 million, eight-year contract in the offseason. “In tough times, disposable income may not be there.”
In other poll results released Tuesday:
But the cost of tickets, concessions, parking and everything else added up to fans’ main concern. The toll of attending a game was tops at 45 percent, followed by player salaries (29 percent), steroids/drugs (19 percent) and the length of games (6 percent).
“It’s gone up like everything else. The last game we went to, we paid $50 for a seat. That’s pretty steep,” Robert Neel, a retired director of admissions at the University of Cincinnati, said at spring training in Florida.
That would make for a cheap seat at either of the two new ballparks opening in New York. At the $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium, a ticket in the lower deck between the bases goes for a minimum of $350 and tops out at $2,625.
At the Mets’ Citi Field, it’s $18 just to park.
The average ticket price in the majors was $25.43 last year — up 11.7 percent over the previous season, according to The Team Marketing Report. The 2009 cost hasn’t been determined, but the increases typically outpace the inflation rate.
MLB said two-thirds of the 30 teams lowered either their average ticket price or some level of seats. The Toronto Blue Jays went even further, offering a season ticket in the upper deck for $76 — less than $1 per game for all 81 home dates.
“The prices at the concession stands are insane,” Cleveland fan Larry Jameson complained at spring training in Goodyear, Ariz. “Eight bucks for a beer. My wife bought a T-shirt. It cost her 22 bucks. She was going to get me a golf shirt. It was 55 bucks. I said forget about it, we need a plane ticket home.”
Margaret Costello, a retired teacher from Sandusky, Ohio, assessed blame across the board.
“I’m not happy about the prices,” she said this week at the Indians’ new camp. “Every sports team in America, every professional athlete, is out of line.
“We have people losing their jobs, and CC Sabathia — I love him, he was my favorite — he gets more millions than a third-world country’s national budget?” she said.
“I’m here for spring training, but I think this is the last time. Every year, I get more disillusioned with the millionaire players. Now, with Americans really in a financial bind, these guys keep getting richer? It has to stop.”
Sabathia, who signed a $161 million, seven-year deal with the Yankees, accepted that sentiment.
“I’m not surprised with the economy being so bad and the way things are, the price of a ticket is probably going to be high. Hopefully they’ll still come out and support us,” he said.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
DeMarco: Plug in a well-heeled ownership group and negotiate one of those mega-bucks TV deals that are going around, and the Dodgers could become the west coast version of the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.
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Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
Doron Lamb hit a 3-pointer with 3:18 left to put No. 1 Kentucky ahead to stay, and the Wildcats took a big step toward a Southeastern Conference regular-season title by beating Vanderbilt 69-63 Saturday night for their 17th straight win.
Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.